A/N: Here's chapter two. Enjoy, and no fair in running the code through a decrypter online.

After around a half hour, the door to the Sequoia Room opened and admitted a slightly-built man with thinning red hair and a smart suit. All four members of Team Mythos rose, the susurrus of chairs against carpet filling the air. 'Sit down, people.' The newcomer said, following his own orders and taking a seat at the head of the table. 'We've got a serious problem. Over the past three weeks, five consultants on five different Reserve Teams have been murdered in California, starting from Mount Shasta and working south, ending here in LA. At each crime scene, there have been extremely complex ciphers and diagrams that even our available Active Teams haven't been able to decrypt fully. This is why I reassembled Mythos.'

'Do we have any suspects?' Sabina asked, looking startled at the revelations their Section Commander was telling them.

'Not as of yet. As much as the NSA would've liked to keep this an internal investigation, one of the murders here in LA was a computer programming consultant whose main job was a FBI lab tech, which means that the LA field office got jurisdiction before we could.'

Charlie looked up, eyes widening. 'My brother-'

'We know, Griffin. That's also one of the reasons this team was specifically reactivated. Since you already have a good connection with them, you'll be acting as a liaison for the two agencies. Your team will help you out. Now, you're due at the FBI offices tomorrow at eight AM. Here are the case files of the four other murders,' Mercury said, opening his briefcase and handing a manila file folder to each person around the table. 'Only their civilian names are given; it'd be of no use to either agency for their code names to be known, even though they've been retired from the records. When you are working with the Bureau, use only your civilian identities. We don't need to deal with any inter-agency problems right now.' He snapped shut his briefcase and stood, nodding sharply to his subordinates before turning and leaving the room.

Once he had left, Charlie sighed and closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair. He ran a hand over his face, trying to figure out the best way to tell Don that he had lied only to preserve national security. Snorting softly, he opened his eyes and stood up, stretching a bit.

'Let's get familiar with the cases.' He said to the others. 'I want to see what we're dealing with.'

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Don got into the office around eight-thirty the next day, ready and raring to get back to work on the FBI tech's case after his day off. He knew that Megan, Colby, and David were already there, though where in the office, he couldn't be sure. His dilemma was solved when Megan stepped out of the conference room and flagged him down. 'Hey, Don. Charlie's already here.' She said, just as Don took a sip of the coffee he had brought with him.

He nearly did a spit-take at her words, eyes widening. 'Excuse me?' he sputtered, blinking rapidly. 'Charlie's here?'

'Yeah. Is he not supposed to be?' she asked, raising an eyebrow.

'He left last night for Oregon- or at least, that's what he told me. Why the hell is he here?'

'He's not alone. There are three other people with him, and they all consult for the NSA.' Megan informed him.

'What's the NSA got to do with this?' he asked, frowning.

They went into the conference room, where Charlie was deep in conversation with three other people who were total strangers to Don. Papers were spread out across the table, some covered with complex equations and others with diagrams of technology that Don couldn't even begin to make heads or tails of. One of the women talking with Charlie, a brunette with grey eyes and highly mobile hands, looked up as the two FBI agents came in. 'Hello.' She said, and Don recognised her voice as that of the woman who had called the house the previous day. 'You must be Charlie's brother; we spoke on the phone yesterday. I'm Doctor Krylová, and these are Doctors Leopold and Parker.'

'Nice to meet you. Hey, Charlie, can I talk to you for a minute?' Don asked. Charlie stopped in mid-sentence, meeting his brother's gaze with his own.

'Sure. Guys, I'll be right back.' Charlie turned briefly back to the small group, flashing a quick smile before turning to leave. Krylová stopped him with a hand on his arm and a few murmured words in Czech. Charlie shook his head, and then continued on his way out of the room.

'You understand Russian?' Don asked bemusedly. Charlie shrugged, slipping his hands into his jacket pockets.

'It's Czech, and I've picked up a few words over the years. Enough to understand when I need to. Listen, I can guess what you want to talk about. I couldn't tell you exactly what I was doing because I thought it was classified, so I told you the lie about having a conference in Oregon. I'm sorry, Don. This side of my life, the consulting for other agencies, and the classified nature of that work- it usually doesn't cross over into my work with you and the FBI.' Charlie said, leaning back with one foot resting on the wall behind him.

Don sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. 'Charlie, what does the NSA have to do with a murdered FBI tech?' he asked, jerking his head in the direction of the conference room.

'Go back in the room and I can tell you.' Charlie replied, straightening up. 'But what I will tell you now is that I've known these people for over four years, and trust their opinions and methodologies entirely. We're a team, and we work well together, just like you and your team do. We'll work with you, but you'll have to trust them like you do me.'

'I can't promise that, Charlie.'

'Just try, please.' Charlie turned and left, going back into the conference room. Don followed after him, and shut the door as he came entered the room. Colby and David were talking quietly with Megan in one corner, while Krylová, Leopold, and Parker had reabsorbed Charlie back into their conversation. Krylová was mainly speaking in English, with a few Czech words thrown in randomly. Leopold, who had a strong Minnesotan accent, was pointing out something to Charlie on a map, his finger describing a line through a specific area. Parker was scribbling something down on an interactive computer tablet, occasionally tapping a stylus against its side as she thought.

'Okay, anyone goin' to explain to me why the NSA is dealing with an FBI case?' Don asked suddenly, startling the four geeks out of their conversations and concentration. Leopold, Krylová, and Parker glanced at Charlie, who nodded once before clearing his throat and pulling up an image on the projector screen behind him. It was a map of California, plotted with five points running the length of the state.

'Over the past three weeks, five NSA consultants living in California have been murdered. Up until now, the NSA has kept the investigations limited to an internal level, occasionally working with the local PDs when necessary.' Charlie hit a button on his computer and the screen changed to display five photos, all of a type that one would see on an ID badge: smile-free, formal, and a plain blue background. Beneath each picture was a name and location of death.

'At least, it was internal until Doctor Murayama was killed three days ago in his apartment. Since you guys got jurisdiction first, it was decided that we would work on this case with you and share as much information as is needed to get whoever's behind this.' Charlie continued on. The four FBI agents were enraptured by his words, most of all Don. He'd never imagined that Charlie would have to deal with this sort of stuff in his other consulting jobs, or even that he'd get to meet with the people Charlie had worked with on said occasions. Charlie gestured at Krylová, who stood and took Charlie's place in front of the projector. She typed a few commands into the computer, and the display changed to a compilation of all of the different codes and diagrams that were also spread out on the table around which everyone was sitting.

'Okay. So, I should probably explain what each member of our team does, before we get started. Charlie, as you know, is a brilliant mathematician and our de facto leader for helping to organise our efforts. Doctor Alana Parker-' Parker waved and gave a small smile. 'Is our resident linguist. Doctor James Leopold is a mechanical engineer, and I am a cryptographer. So, now that you know our skills, we shall start putting them to use.'

She clicked on a specific image, which enlarged until it completely filled the screen. 'This is the set of codes that was found at the first crime scene in Mount Shasta. Now, some of our analysts have already tried going over this, but there has recently been an upswing in the amount of decryptions needed to be worked on, so it got shunted down to us. We all are civilians who occasionally consult for the NSA, so we have some free time on our schedules. Now, we think that this is a Playfair Cipher; unfortunately, we don't have the keyword to break it. It could be anything, and without it, we can only do so much.'

The code on the screen read thusly:

UG QS MY GM MY MN GH WH UL FB SL

BF FL MB HO EC EC YR NM HO GS FI

FQ VQ FQ IB FV BT CF HW HM EL UI

XT BY DH SL AL IU HW OP ME HY FK

BT EQ UQ SG BL IS YB SX NS QZ

'So, until you can figure out the password, all of those codes are basically useless, then?' Colby piped up.

'Správne, Agent Granger. However, we are running it through a program that uses brute force methods to try and decrypt the message. And that's assuming the keyword is in English. Thankfully, we have other options to pursue right now: namely, these intriguing diagrams of these devices.' Sabina replied, changing the screen once more. 'Before we speak about them, however, I suggest we take a small break and stretch our legs a bit. It won't do us any good to be cooped up in a room all day trying to work on something that may take more than what we're willing to give it at the moment.'

'Good plan. Meet back here in ten, people.' Don said, getting up from his chair. The others filed out, blinking as their eyes readjusted to the bright florescent lights outside the dark conference room.